Generations.

We were able to spend some time with Willie's grandparents. It was fun getting a picture of the generations. We have Willie's grandpa Thede, dad Kim and then Willie and the boys.We don't get to see Willie's grandparents as much as we would like. We were excited to spend some time this holiday season with them. The boys had fun hanging out with grandpa and great-grandpa.I think the following picture is fun because they are all giving the same look. We just needed Willie in the picture, oh well.

A move back home?

We are officially homeless. We made the move back to Atlanta from Boston; granted nearly everything we own is in storage. We will miss those in Boston who have touched our lives. We learned so much from them and we are grateful for the friendships we have made. We thank those who helped us so much while we were there. All of the wonderful people in the photo below are those who were able to come help us pack up on a Monday night. Thank you Dan, Tim, Mike?, Chris, the Kang family and Bishop McKechnie with his girls. We have been blessed by our experience in Boston. We loved it so much that we hope that one day we can return. Who knew that Boston was such a spectacular place?
Day 1: The first leg of our trip took us to Flushing, New York. Willie's mission! Through facebook I spoke with Candy and we set up a gathering of those who Willie taught. I knew that Willie was extremely excited to visit his old stomping grounds. He was ecstatic about seeing old friends again. We had a great Chinese dinner. I even tried jellyfish. Chewy. Thank you for dinner our friends. Day 2: The second part of our journey took us to Washington D. C. We had hoped to stop in Philadelphia to visit a friend of mine but the circumstances did not allow such a visit. Bummer. We did get to drive through a big rain storm in D.C. where it took us an additional hour or two to get to our destination. We just happened to drive by the Temple so we pulled off the freeway to avoid some traffic and see a beautiful site.
We stayed with some of our old friends from Utah State/Boise. We had some fun with them. Thanks for hosting us.Piper was a treat. She and the boys stayed in one room together. We found out that Piper stayed up extra late working on a project. She found some baby powder and started distributing it to Parker and Lincoln, but first was her baby. Parker had a line of baby powder on his head. Lincoln was lucky, the powder was nearly gone when Piper got to him.
Her poor baby was received the first blow.We made it to Atlanta after another two days of travel. We stayed with the Merkley family. Thank you so much for letting us stay with you. We all got together, the Merkley's, the Salmon's and us. We let the kids go to bed and we stayed up enjoying each others company. After being friends for two years we finally have a group shot. I think it turned out rather nicely. Thanks for being our great friends.
p.s. this post is incomplete. I have forgotten a few things but one day I will hopefully write them down. :)

MONSTERS!

Here is the story on the monsters. About a month ago Willie and I heard a crash from somewhere in the house. We didn't really care to check it out because it was late and we were a bit sleepy. In the morning we found the something had fallen in the boys' closet and it knocked the vacuum out of the closet. Over the next few weeks Parker kept waking up with nightmares and monsters. He told Willie one Sunday that "the monsters are coming for Parker." We called my sister up to find out how to handle the situation. She suggested a 'monster spray.' We gave it a try by putting water in a spray bottle and making a special spray. Parker didn't mind spraying everything in the house. The monsters didn't go away though. This idea I think works on older children. We noticed that Parker kept pulling the 'monster' out on us. We gave him so much attention that it was working against us.
P-man slept in our bed a few nights in a row and that just had to stop. He doesn't sleep in his bed anymore. He has chosen to sleep in our second pack-n-play. We decided to sing the monster to sleep. We sing 'I'm a Child of God' to the monster because that's what we sing when the boys go to bed. It works on occasion. The most recent success has been the "patula" = "spatula." Willie takes it in the boys' room and Parker points out where the monster is and Willie hit him. Near the beginning we tried saying prayers to ask for protection through the night. This works on occasion as well.
Just yesterday I saw Parker holding a puff out and saying 'here you go monster'. He was trying to feed the monster Lincoln's puffs. I told Parker that he was so nice to give the monster food. When we brush our teeth the monster will come and we put Parker up on the counter to brush his teeth. We know that Parker is using the monster as an excuse to get up on the counter. We try to put him up before he can mention the monster. I think this monster will be a part of our lives for awhile.

Happy Birthday.

Well there is nothing fancy about growing old. We celebrated my birthday by giving our boys some of the larger Christmas presents we wanted them to have. Parker and Lincoln have a new table and some trains. Willie took Parker out to get a present for me from Parker. They drove down to the local CVS pharmacy and picked out a sweet gift. Willie kept telling Parker that they needed to keep the gift a secret for two days. No matter how much Willie tried to get the idea through to Parker it didn't work. As the boys were coming home I could hear Parker just outside the door saying 'Mommy's airplane.' When he came in the door he was so excited to tell me about 'Mommy's airplane.' Parker grabbed the gift from Willie and brought it over to show me. We decided to open the present right away. It was a HotWheels airplane. I have enjoyed the airplane a lot. I think that Parker gets to play with it more than me though.
We had a birthday cake made of pumpkin cookies in the shape of a flower. Parker we kind to blow the candles out for me.
Willie bought me some fun flowers. After a week they are still alive and kicking. Willie is an amazing husband and he makes my life fun.Earlier in the day I took the kids on a walk. It was a nice fall day. The sun wasn't shining but the weather was fabulous. Parker was excited to wear his new attire. We picked up some boots, coat and snowpants on craigslist for $25. I didn't think it was too bad of a deal.We didn't have the strollers around so Lincoln got to ride on my back. He sure was a cutie. I think he enjoyed the ride.As for our 'going out' celebrations we went down to the Museum of Science. We had such a great time. The Harry Potter Exhibit was the main event for the evening. We couldn't take pictures but it really was cool seeing many of the items from the movies. One of the first things we did as we entered the exhibit was watch some clips from the films. They showed the Hogwarts Express and Parker said out loud, "Train!" He kept saying it over and over again. The doors opened to the next room and they had the train right there. Willie kept taking Parker back to the train many times as we visited the exhibit. They had a dragon head and Parker kept calling it a monster (more on that later).

Follow by example.

Today I had the internet pulled up on the computer. I left the computer for awhile to get some other work done. Parker walked over and got up on the chair. As he was playing with the mouse he said, 'I just gonna check my emaol.' He scrolled down a little with the roller on the mouse and then said, 'I done checkin' my emaol.' I guess I spend too much time checking my email and voicing it.

Lincoln loves the game pat-a-cake. Today he started clapping on his own. We were very excited for him.

T-Ball

Here is the t-ball video I thought that I had posted. We like P-mans aim.

Fun At Home.

We do try to have fun doing things other than the Boston Attractions. We try to go to the local park on nice days. We play t-ball with Willie when he comes home. Parker is a bit of a lazy player and he just doesn't understand the rules; man, two year olds! The video of Parker playing t-ball will help you to understand my comment. Lincoln and Parker are becoming really good friends. Just yesterday Parker was telling Lincoln that they needed to take bites of their food at the same time and to say 'aaahhhuummm!' Bath time can get a little crazy. We sometimes decide to pull the curtain so we don't have to get too wet. Lincoln loves to splash and Parker has learned to lay down on his back and kick the water all over.
When Parker gets running around the house in circles Lincoln is close by laughing as Parker rounds a corner. They are good brothers and they have too much fun together. There are times when they need alone time with either Willie or I but overall they just love being together.
This picture is of Lincoln eating a puzzle piece to a Thomas book that we have.
Lincoln has developed some bad habits from Parker though. Parker is going on to too many months off the white stuff and insists on only drinking H2O. Before we started Lincoln on drinking formula from a bottle we thought we were going to be in big trouble. Lincoln always watches Parker drink from a sippy cup. Lincoln became accustomed to drinking water from a sippy cup. He loves it. In fact he knows how to hold the sippy and not the bottle.

I asked Parker one day if he wanted to help me feed Lincoln. What a cute kid, he loves to help. I loved watching Parker open his mouth as he was feeding Lincoln his food. We all open our mouths when we feed babies at some point in our lives. Parker made pancakes one morning. We eat pancakes EVERYDAY! Willie and I are sick of them. But look how good Parker did getting the batter on the griddle.
The new train plate is really nice. It never really goes in the dishwasher because Parker has to eat from it at every meal. We wash it frequently. In the collage below is a picture of the excess syrup that remained on Parker's plate. It's a good thing it has sides. Parker decided to get himself some syrup one day when Willie and I weren't watching. Ever since P-man doesn't like as much syrup, he will throw a fit if it runs off the pancake. Willie became creative and started making train pancakes for Parker. We are both becoming pretty talented in the pancake department. I have a better video but it wouldn't upload.

I was walking into boys' room when I heard Parker say 'Lincon, I'm trying to sleep, it's nap time.' Parker was laying on the ground with a blanket over him with his head on his new Thomas chair and Lincoln had the Tigger walker toy on top of Parker trying to push it. I had to chuckle. I just said to myself, 'now you know what it's like when I try to sleep and you are doing something like that to me.'
Parker turned to me one day and said 'Mommy, I like you toe much.' toe = so What a cutie pie.

Another day at Mt. Auburn

This post doesn't need much in the way of words. We loved Mt. Auburn so much that we went back. We took the boys in their costumes to get some fun pictures. The leaves were at their peak coloring. We had so much fun walking around in 70 degree weather with a good breeze. Our first and perhaps only fall in Boston has been the best fall we have ever experienced.



I love these cute boys.

Mt. Auburn Cemetary

We weren't prepared for how beautiful this cemetery would be. We drove in and immediately fell in love with the place. We hope to go back really soon and stroll around. The boys were asleep when we were there. Lincoln woke up a little bit into our drive through but we can't do to much if Parker isn't awake.
A friend of our told us to find the tower and look out. Willie and I took turns going up the tower. When I got up there I saw a beautiful fall sight. What a gorgeous view. Thanks Alisa for the tip.
Here is Willie in front of the tower. I like the tower too because it's so cool looking. It reminds me of Romeo and Juliet or Rapunzel (although this tower has doors).
Here is a view from the tower looking down on Willie and Lincoln.
Self photo.
Before leaving we found a great tree that had lost many leaves so we set the camera up with the car running and quickly took a picture before the battery ran out on the camera. One shot, it turned out alright.In the olden days people would go to cemeteries to picnic. They are peaceful places to visit. As we drove around I thought about people coming in their carriages with their fun big dresses and sitting down with a light lunch. I enjoyed visiting Mt. Auburn.

Head of the Charles.

A few weeks back we went down to the Head of the Charles Regatta. You don't get this kind of entertainment in Utah. This was really fun to watch a rowing race. We made it in time to watch the quads race and stayed just long enough to watch the eight-man boats going. I overheard that conditions for the race this year were pretty good. We were lucky to be all bundled up and chilled for the race. We had fun taking the boys downtown.
We forgot Parker's beanie so we kept his hood up the whole time. What a cheesy grin.
Will is excited for the race.
On occasion the sun would break through the clouds and warm us up. Many people had purchased soup in bread bowls; the soup looked so yummy. We are cheap and we didn't want to pay the $8 for one bowl of soup.
I enjoyed taking picture of all of us with the racers behind us. We don't know who won or how the race really worked but it was still a good day to be out.
Lincoln enjoyed his time crawling around and staying warm. It's a good thing we brought a few things for him to play with.
Parker liked the boats at first but his interest soon turned to the green ambulances that were parked a little ways away. He also loved the little slope that was in front of our spot on the grass.
I think Lincoln was the warmest of us all. We had him bundled up pretty good.
I looked up at one point to watch three boats getting really close to each other. Right in front of us the paddles of two teams were colliding. They all had to stop and get out of each others way. A small crash right in front of us. I was too slow getting the video out.

From this picture you can tell that the boat race was getting really interesting; wait, never mind Parker is distracted by the grass on the slope.Just before we left I took a picture of the eight-man boat. They were haulin' it. Did you know that rowing is one of the best workouts that you can get? When we are rich and unfamous I will have a rowing machine in my home.

Trunk-or-treat.

Look out Captain Hook, Peter Pan is here. One night as Willie and I were going to bed I came up with the idea to have Lincoln be a skunk because at times he can really stink it up. I kept thinking about what the rest of us could be. Just before Willie fell asleep I told him he could be Captain Hook, Parker could be Peter and I could be either Wendy or Tiger Lilly. Time was drawing closer and I finally found the Good Will, and it helped with the adult costumes. I put a little bit of work in on Willie's but all I needed to do with mine was find a ribbon (Wendy). I finished three of the four costumes a few days before the trunk-or-treat. The costume that got us started was the last to be complete. I searched craigslist and found it there for $10. Boy was I excited and Lincoln was so 'stinkin' cute. :) Here we are in our costumes.
Here I am with the boys. My dress was a little short so I wore pj's to cover up and stay warm on the chilly night. Don't you just love the furry part of Lincoln's costume. I made Parker's hat a little too small, but hey it worked for a little bit.This was Parker's almost complete costume, he doesn't have his little knife with him. He didn't want to pose for us so this was the best we got.We didn't decorate our trunk but the kids were still happy to get candy. Willie was asked if he was a squire. About 20 minutes into the party Willie had taken off a few essential items that made him Captain Hook. He looked good as a squire as well. :)Here is our cute skunk. Lincoln did so well going way past his bedtime. What a trooper. We love this kid so much.There were so many awesome ideas for costumes at our trunk-0r-treat. We saw a family of monkey's, princess', bee keepers, another Peter Pan themed family, and others. Some of my favorite costumes were caught on this short video of our costume parade. I thought that one family had a fun idea they dressed up as Santa and had their car decked out with a Christmas tree, lights, and stockings; it was very festive.